 Mellie Perkins |
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by J. Steven O'Malley |
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Mellie Perkins was a young deaconess in the United Brethren Church who went West for her health in 1912. When she visited the Española Valley in northern New Mexico, she learned that a need existed for education among Spanish-speaking children. Perkins appealed to the Woman’s Missionary Association of her church to buy the property another church had owned. She wrote, “I offered myself at conference time to cast my lots among these people.” When the association agreed to her proposal, she started studying Spanish. The Spanish-speaking people in the area were both Hispanics and Native Americans. They were poor, although they had a rich culture and were adept at agriculture and some of them at tapestry and pottery-making. Perkins cleaned up the property, set up a school, and also became a nurse. She once wrote, “I reached home at 7:00 PM cold and hungry, but I thanked God for the privilege of ministering.” Out of Perkins’s efforts came McCurdy School, named for Edith McCurdy, Perkins’s tutor and mentor. Her efforts established a mission which at one time included a nursing school and hospital, still in existence but no longer related to the church. McCurdy School continues as an important institution serving the predominantly Spanish-speaking people of the region and supported by the Advance for Christ and His Church. With an elementary, middle, and high school, it is an excellent academic institution. But it also works with the community on drug abuse, violence, and other issues. Inclusive racially and ethnically, it has also broken down barriers between Roman Catholics and Protestants. The ministry today embraces several small congregations in the northern Rio Grande Valley. The Mellie Perkins story may be found in J. Steven O’Malley, “On the Journey Home”: The History of Mission of the Evangelical United Brethren Church, 1946–1968.
Date posted: Mar 09, 2006 |
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